A historic handwritten letter by Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar (c1696-1743), the revered author of the biblical commentary "Or HaChaim," sold for $700,000 (2.5 million shekels) at auction in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

The sale, conducted by Kedem Auction House, includes an additional 25% commission fee.

The manuscript, which emerged from a comprehensive collection assembled by Israeli attorney Avigdor Klagsbald, features the distinctive signature of Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar and addresses the Jewish religious judges of Meknes regarding tax relief for a community member. The letter was discovered within a remarkable volume containing hundreds of manuscripts and signatures from prominent 18th-century Moroccan Torah scholars, including Rabbi Yaakov ibn Tzur and Rabbi Yehudah ben Attar.

Chaim ibn Attar's legacy extends far beyond this single document. As a leading advocate for Jewish emigration to the Land of Israel, he led by example during a period of severe persecution and famine in Morocco. These challenging circumstances not only influenced his decision to immigrate but also impacted the writing of his seminal work "Or HaChaim," where he acknowledged variations in commentary length due to the period's upheavals.

In a journey that would shape Jerusalem's religious landscape, Chaim ibn Attar arrived first in Acre with 30 students, intending to establish a yeshivah. After navigating through epidemics in the Galilee, he eventually settled in Jerusalem, where he purchased a historic courtyard—now known as the Old Yishuv Courtyard, it is traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, commonly known as the Ari, two centuries earlier—and established his study hall.

Chaim ibn Attar, a Sephardic rabbi, achieved unprecedented recognition among Chassidic communities throughout Europe, with his writings becoming cornerstone texts in Chassidic thought. The study hall he founded demonstrated similar resilience, surviving the 1948 Jordanian destruction of Jewish institutions and later undergoing renovation on Or HaChaim Street in the Jewish Quarter following the Six-Day War.

Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar's influence continues well beyond his brief life, which ended at age 47 in 1743. His tomb on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives serves as a significant pilgrimage site, drawing thousands annually who seek blessings at the final resting place of this influential scholar.

Originally published by Israel Hayom.

Israel's Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday approved government backing for a Knesset bill that would allow Jews to directly purchase land in Judea and Samaria without going through the Civil Administration.

Hebrew media is characterizing it as a step on the way to the annexation of Judea and Samaria.

Until now, only citizens of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan could purchase land directly in Judea and Samaria. Jordan, which occupied Judea and Samaria between 1948 and 1967, had applied to the region the "The law on renting and selling immovable property to Foreigners," aka the "Jordanian Law."

It prohibits the purchase of land in Judea and Samaria by foreigners who do not have Jordanian citizenship.

Israel has not annexed Judea and Samaria, instead setting up a body called the Civil Administration in 1981 to replace the military government that ruled there since Israel liberated the territory in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Civil Administration has maintained a combination of Ottoman, Jordanian and British Mandate laws in the region.

The bill would repeal the "Jordanian Law."

The new legislation states, "This reality, which sets limits on the right of a citizen of the State of Israel to acquire rights in real estate in the Judea and Samaria region only because of being an Israeli citizen, is unacceptable.

"Therefore, it is proposed to establish in primary legislation that every person will be allowed to acquire rights in real estate in the Judea and Samaria region, as in any other place," it said.

Previous Israeli efforts to cancel the "Jordanian Law" have failed. In 2022, Israel's High Court of Justice rejected a petition by the Regavim group to change the law. The court said it is a political decision and legislation is required to change it.

Residents of Judea and Samaria have circumvented the law until now by opening companies with the Civil Administration and purchasing land through those companies.

Sponsoring the proposed law are members of the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus, a group of Israeli parliament members whose mission is to strengthen Israel's hold on Judea and Samaria.

Forty members of the caucus signed onto the bill, which they say is "correcting a historical injustice and stopping racial discrimination."

"While the Palestinians are shouting about fake 'apartheid,' right here in Israel, Jordanian apartheid against Jews is taking place," said MK Moshe Solomon of the Religious Zionism Party and one of the heads of the Land of Israel Caucus.

The law will fix an upside-down situation in which a Jewish state has permitted "racist discrimination against Jews to exist since the British Mandate," he said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday visited the grave of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in Queens, New York, where he prayed for the swift return of the hostages still being held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Herzog also prayed for the safety of Israeli security forces stationed in the Strip, Lebanon, Judea and Samaria and beyond.

The president left a note at the gravesite, reading: "For the swift return of all the hostages, for the victory and safety of IDF soldiers and security forces wherever they may be. For the recovery of all those wounded in body and soul. For the return of the evacuees to their homes. Amen."

In April, then-U.S. President Joe Biden recognized Schneerson on “Education and Sharing Day, USA.”

“We honor the Rebbe’s birthday every year, but we know this year is different. Violence and cruelty have reminded us that hate never goes away—it only hides,” Biden stated. “Silence is complicity, and America will not be silent. As Americans, we reject terrorism and will keep working unequivocally to combat antisemitism at every turn.

“The Rebbe knew that education is fundamental to cultivating understanding and acceptance. It opens us up to one another, and it builds not just knowledge but character, as well as an awareness of something bigger than ourselves,” he added.

The first three female hostages freed by Hamas terrorists during the current ceasefire have been released from the hospital, Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan announced on Sunday.

Former Gaza captives Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, completed their tests and initial medical treatment at the hospital, according to the statement, which noted that "Sheba Medical Center will continue to support them and their families."

The ex-hostages and their relatives were expected to move to the nearby Kfar Maccabiah Hotel following their release as they need continued medical follow-up.

Gonen, Damari and Steinbrecher were handed over by Hamas terrorists to a team of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza on Jan. 19, as part of the ceasefire agreement with the terrorist group.

Following an initial medical examination and reunion with their mothers at the Israel Defense Forces reception point near the Gaza border and their subsequent transfer to the hospital via helicopter, Sheba Medical Center General Hospital Director Dr. Yael Frenkel Nir told reporters that the women's physical condition was good enough to allow them to focus on reuniting with other family members.

Damari lost two of her fingers when she was shot by Hamas gunmen during the Oct. 7, 2023, kidnapping from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

In a Channel 12 report vetted by Israel’s military censor and approved by the hostages that was published on Jan. 20, the three released captives recalled being held in underground facilities for 471 days with little medical attention, tremendous uncertainty and, at times, despair.

French President Emmanuel Macron has assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israeli defense firms will be able to participate in the June 16-22 Paris Air Show, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement following a call between the two leaders on Sunday.

According to the PMO readout, Netanyahu and Macron also discussed other issues, "including developments in Lebanon and Gaza."

Last year, the French government introduced extreme restrictions on Israeli entities taking part in arms fairs in the country, banning all firms whose products were used in the wars in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Virtually all Israeli arms manufacturers sell their products to the security forces, which have been conducting the fighting for more than 15 months.

In October, a Paris court reversed the decision to ban Israeli firms from the next month's Euronaval Defense Exposition, citing principles of equality.

Jerusalem and Paris have repeatedly clashed since Macron called for a partial arms embargo on the Jewish state's military in early October.

"I have a message for President Macron. Today, Israel is defending itself on seven fronts against the enemies of civilization," Netanyahu said in an Oct. 5 statement published by his office. "All civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel's side. Yet President Macron and some other Western leaders are now calling for an arms embargo against Israel. Shame on them," he said, adding, "What a disgrace."

Later that month, the Israeli prime minister rebuffed Macron after he claimed that the Jewish state was created by a United Nations vote.

“A reminder to the French president: It was not a U.N. decision that established the State of Israel but the victory that was achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of our heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, including from the Vichy regime in France,” said the premier.

“It would also be worthwhile to recall that in recent decades, the U.N. has approved hundreds of antisemitic decisions against the State of Israel, the purpose of which is to deny the one and only Jewish state’s right to exist and its ability to defend itself,” Netanyahu added.

The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday unanimously approved the appointment of seven ambassadors proposed by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar.

Yoram Elron will be ambassador to Moldova. He previously served as Israel's ambassador to Bulgaria (2019-23) and to Cameroon (2000-03), and as consul general in Montreal.

Walid Abu-Haya, from the Druze community, will take over as ambassador to Georgia. He currently serves in the Economics Division at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Maya Kados, currently serving as Sa'ar's chief of staff for foreign policy, has been appointed ambassador to Hungary. She previously served as a senior political adviser to former Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

Simon Seroussi will be Israeli ambassador to the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo. He is currently serving in the European Division of the Foreign Ministry. He was previously spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in France and deputy ambassador in Cameroon.

Israel's new ambassador to Kazakhstan will be Yoav Bastritzky, currently serving as deputy ambassador to Azerbaijan.

Vivian Eisen, former director of the Latin America Division in the Foreign Ministry, was appointed as roving ambassador to North Macedonia.

Ruth Cohen-Dar, who serves as director of the Public Diplomacy Division, was appointed as roving ambassador to Malta and Slovenia.

Elon Musk praised the right-wing Alternative for Germany party and suggested there’s “too much focus on past guilt” of Germans, during an address he gave on Saturday using a remote video stream at an AfD gathering in Halle.

“I’m very excited about the AfD, I think it’s the best hope for Germany,” Musk said in his address. It’s OK to be proud to be German, it’s a very important principle, it’s good to be proud of German culture, not to lose that in multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” said Musk, who has endorsed AfD in the past.

“I think there's maybe too much focus on past guilt. We need to move beyond that, children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their parents, their great-grandparents, maybe even,” added Musk, a billionaire, innovator and U.S. President Donald Trump's pick to co-head the newly established Department of Government Efficiency.

Dani Dayan, the chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, said he disagreed. “Contrary to Elon Musk’s advice, the remembrance and acknowledgment of the dark past of the country and its people should be central in shaping the German society. Failing to do so is an insult to the victims of Nazism and a clear danger to the democratic future of Germany,” Dayan tweeted.

The AfD is an anti-immigration movement that is frequently rocked by scandals connected to the country’s Nazi past. Last year it received 16% of the vote in the European Parliament elections in Germany, a five-point increase over the 2019 election.

AfD leader Alice Weidel in September boycotted an event commemorating the liberation from Nazism, explaining it was akin to celebrating “my own country’s defeat.” Party founder and honorary chairman Alexander Gauland in 2017 said Germans “should be proud” of soldiers who fought in both world wars.

AfD and many of its supporters say the party is not antisemitic and confronts expressions of such hatred in its ranks. It is being singled out and described as illegitimate because of Germany’s past, they say.

Musk's remarks came after an earlier controversy involving a gesture he performed in a speech in Washington on the day of Trump's inauguration. Some of his critics said it was a Hitler salute but others, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he was “being falsely smeared,” as Netanyahu put it.

Ali Abunimah, co-founder and executive director of the anti-Israel Electronic Intifada website, was arrested by Swiss police ahead of a speaking engagement in Zurich on Saturday, the organization said.

The Palestinian-American activist "is currently being detained and has had access to legal counsel," according to the Saturday statement.

Electronic Intifada said that Abunimah was also interrogated by police at Zurich Airport for an hour before being allowed to enter the country.

According to the report by Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Abunimah had been invited by The Palestine Committee Zurich. The Swiss daily added that local police had been notified of Abunimah's planned appearance and submitted a request to the Federal Office of Police that he be banned.

Zurich Canton Councilor Mario Fehr told the Swiss newspaper, "We do not want an Islamist Jew-hater who calls for violence in Switzerland."

Abunimah's detention was immediately condemned by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. In a statement, the committee said it was "outraged" by what it called a "reminder of the increasing attempts to stifle voices calling for justice and accountability."

The Arab organization called on the U.S. State Department to "fulfill its responsibility to protect the rights of its citizens abroad and do what it can to secure the safe and immediate release of Abunimah."

Abunimah previously celebrated Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, murder of 1,200 people—primarily Jewish civilians—as an "anti-colonial operation."

On Nov. 10, the Electronic Intifada founder wrote in a post on X, "From 'mass rapes' and 'burned babies' on 7 October 2023, to 'anti-Semitic pogroms' against genocidal 'Israeli' hooligans in the Netherlands now, the genocidal Zionist regime and its savage and barbaric Western accomplices lie and lie to justify and cover up their hideous crimes."

According to the NGO Monitor group, Abunimah frequently makes Holocaust references. He has called Gaza a "concentration camp" and repeated a claim that Israeli army statements are the words "of a Nazi."

The American activist has called the Gaza Strip a "ghetto for surplus non-Jews," compared the press in the Jewish state to Nazi Germany's Der Sturmer, and declared in 2010 that "Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit."

The Israel-Hamas ceasefire is a bad deal. While the release of Israeli hostages is undeniably positive, moving and vital, the consequences of the agreement are grave, even if less imminent: The return of Hamas to the northern Gaza Strip, keeping the terror group in power, incentivizing terrorism against Jews around the world and endangering Israeli lives via the mass release of terrorists. Moreover, the deal does not secure the release of all 90 hostages still being held in the hell of Gaza.

During my visit to the United States last week, I met many Americans who questioned President Donald Trump's support for and even orchestration of this deal. Plenty of Americans have justifiable concerns about the agreement, as do many in Israel. Although somewhat disappointing, it is not entirely surprising that Trump wished for this deal to be signed before he assumed office. It is perhaps also a failure on the part of Israel’s senior government members that they failed to convey to him the dangers of the agreement. The president views the release of the hostages as being of the utmost importance, while recognizing Israel’s security needs. It is for that reason that Trump has promised to back Israel’s military efforts if and when the ceasefire collapses.

The Trump administration is undoubtedly pro-Israel, and far more supportive of the Jewish state than was the Biden-Harris administration. The achievements of Trump’s first presidency should not be overlooked: the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, retracting the false legal position that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria are “illegal”, the Abraham Accords, etc. The Israeli public appreciates the president’s tremendous support and friendship, with polls showing that almost 70% of Israelis sided with Trump’s during the election, opposed to just 17% who preferred Harris (the rest said they did not know). Israelis love Trump, and are delighted that he is back in the Oval Office.

His administration has already cancelled the sanctions unjustly imposed by Biden on Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, and ended the de-facto embargo that prevented the shipment of crucial weapons and military equipment. Several key administration figures have expressed their support for Israel’s war efforts in Gaza, and understand that the evil of Hamas must be eradicated.

Hours after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, the Israeli government declared the war aim of dismantling Hamas’s military and administrative capabilities, essentially destroying the organization, to ensure that “Never Again” be more than a mere slogan. That goal is yet to be achieved, but it must be achieved—for the sake of Israel, the Middle East and the free world.

Trump knows how to differentiate between good and evil better than any other world leader. He understands that Israel, a beacon of light, democracy and Judeo-Christian values in a volatile Middle East, is fighting the forces of barbarism, violence and jihad. He has proven that he is on the right side of history and on the right side of morality.

After 33 of our hostages are brought home in the first phase of the deal, Israel must return to fighting in Gaza—this time stronger, smarter and more efficiently than before. We must stop transferring humanitarian aid directly to Hamas, take responsibility over Gaza (at least temporarily, until there is a viable political alternative) and destroy Hamas once and for all.

Together, Israel and the United States must seize this opportunity—for the safety and security of our future, and for the peace and prosperity of the entire world.